1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to rice bran flour and the method of making the same, and more specifically it relates to a method of making rice bran flour which can effectively lower the glycosylated hemoglobin and increase the insulin of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM, Type II DM) patients.
2. Description of the Related Art
The present invention is directed to a method of making rice bran flour.
Gradually in recent years, much attention has been directed to the relationship between dietary fiber in foods and diabetes. Because dietary fiber can delay the digestion and absorption of foods, and improve the reaction of blood sugar and the concentration of insulin after meals, the incidence of diabetes can be reduced by increasing the ingested amount of whole-grain cereal and cereal fiber in the diet.
Rice bran is rich in dietary fiber, and it provides benefits in adjusting blood sugar of diabetes patients if the ingested amount of rice bran can be increased, e.g. via food processing. Junko in JPO patent publication number 2005-000049 discloses a method in which rice bran is heated by medium fire (60° C.) to turn it into brown rice bran, and then the brown rice bran is ground twice before it is to be eaten. This patent didn't teach inactivating the lipase which causes the rice bran to turn sour and rancid, therefore the quality of the rice bran product is compromised.
Qureshi A A et al., in 2002, JNB 13:175, heat the rice bran for 3 to 90 sec. at 130-140° C. in order to inactivate the lipase of rice brain to produce stabilized rice bran, then put the stabilized rice bran into water to be heated to 70-90° C., the rice bran is hydrolyzed by using carbohydrate hydrolases, then it is filtered to yield rice bran water solution (RBWS), and the insoluble substance is called rice bran fiber (RBF). An experiment is designed to have diabetes patients eat stabilized rice bran, RBWS, and RBF for 60 days. The result of the experiment is: after 60 days, the amount of serum insulin of the diabetes patients eating RBWS is increased by 4%, and the amount of the glycosylated hemoglobin of the diabetes patients is reduced by 15%. Therefore, it shows that eating RBWS can improve the effects of glycosylated hemoglobin and insulin of diabetes patients. However, the process for making RBWS is complicated, and it requires adding carbohydrate hydrolases to hydrolyze rice bran; moreover, the liquid form of RBWS is bound to limit its use in food manufacture.
Therefore, there is a need of providing a method whereby the user can easily manufacture a rice bran flour which is more useful in food manufacture and which can effectively lower the glycosylated hemoglobin and increase the insulin of diabetes patients.